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based were derived. Cave had taken off the thing to the hospital hidden
in the dog-fish sack, and there had pressed the young investigator to
keep it for him. Mr. Wace was a little dubious at first. His
relationship to Cave was peculiar. He had a taste for singular
characters, and he had more than once invited the old man to smoke and
drink in his rooms, and to unfold his rather amusing views of life in
general and of his wife in particular. Mr. Wace had encountered Mrs.
Cave, too, on occasions when Mr. Cave was not at home to attend to him.
He knew the constant interference to which Cave was subjected, and
having weighed the story judicially, he decided to give the crystal a
refuge. Mr. Cave promised to explain the reasons for his remarkable
affection for the crystal more fully on a later occasion, but he spoke
distinctly of seeing visions therein. He called on Mr. Wace the same
evening.
He told a complicated story. The crystal he said had come into his
possession with other oddments at the forced sale of another curiosity
dealer's effects, and not knowing what its value might be, he had
ticketed it at ten shillings. It had hung upon his hands at that price
for some months, and he was thinking of "reducing the figure," when he
made a singular discovery.
At that time his health was very bad--and it must be borne in mind that,
throughout all this experience, his physical condition was one of
ebb--and he was in considerable distress by reason of the negligence,
the positive ill-treatment even, he received from his wife and
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